Email Marketing for Authors
You’ve put in the hours, weeks and years. You’ve completed the book. You’re ready to share it with the world. Now begins the real task: How do you get your books sold?
When it comes to selling most things, books especially, your greatest asset is an extensive mailing list. With a well-thought-out email campaign, you will be able to build the relationship you need to sell your book to your ideal audience.
Here’s everything you need to know about starting, growing, and building a successful mailing list.
Why Should I Build an Email List?
Having an email marketing list offers so much more than you could possibly imagine. It is a highly underrated marketing tool that has proven to be one of the most successful in terms of sales. In fact, Campaign Monitor’s 2021 statistics found that email marketing has a 4,200% ROI. This equates to about a $42 return on every $1 spent.
If that isn’t reason enough, here is why you should focus on building your email list:
It’s a Personal Communication Channel
Unlike other digital marketing methods (like social media), you can make your emails personal and speak directly to each individual reader. Consumers are looking for personal connections in a modern era where marketing is mass-produced. 50 research-backed web statistics by Dynamic Yield revealed that 71% of consumers say a personalized experience would influence their decision to open and read brand emails. Thus, your emails will help build meaningful relationships with your readers, which is crucial, especially for repeat sales.
You can speak to your readers one-on-one when building your email list since it is delivered directly to their inbox. It’s not a broadcast they’re viewing but rather a personal message they are receiving.
You can personalize these emails even further with Email Service Providers so that each email automatically refers to your reader by name.
You Can Automate Every Email
Instead of constantly creating emails and sending them to every new subscriber, you can automate all your emails. The key to an emailing marketing list is to create specific emails once and schedule them to send at specific times.
So, for instance, your first automated email will send the day the reader first subscribes. Your following email could be scheduled for two days after and then again a week later.
These automations allow your marketing to continue without you having to constantly write and send emails. It is an easy and near effortless way of marketing your books and racking in those sales.
You Can Track Your Marketing Efforts
With most Email Service Providers, you can measure every action on your email. You can track how many emails were opened, which links were clicked, as well as your readers’ demographics. This data will give you invaluable insight into your type of audience, allowing you to alter your efforts accordingly.
With each of your emails, you will be able to see what your readers respond to best and change your upcoming emails to ensure they’re in line with the better-performing ones. For instance, you will be able to see things like:
● Which days and times do subscribers open your emails?
● Do your emails perform better with or without images?
● Do emojis in your subject line increase your email open rate?
● Does having the reader’s name in the subject line increase the open rate?
Tracking who opens your emails and what they do thereafter is vital for your continuous marketing efforts.
It Is One of the Most Cost-Effective Methods
While it requires some time and effort to build powerful lists, it is one of the most cost-effective ways to target your ideal audience directly. Most digital and print marketing efforts tend to cost a significant amount to reach your target audience.
The only actual expense would be your Email Service Provider, which starts at as little as $20 or can even be free. So it should be a no-brainer.
It Has Some of the Highest Conversion Rates
Compared to other digital marketing methods, especially social media, emails have exceptionally higher conversion rates. Many factors contribute to the higher conversion, but it all boils down to your ability to keep their attention. Other digital platforms constantly fight for the viewers’ attentiveness. Social media is a sensory and information overload, making it hard to keep the individuals focused. However, with emails, you tend to have more of your reader’s attention, making it easier to convert your customer or sell your book.
You Can Target Specific Readers
While social media allows you to target specific readers and specific demographics, you have limited reach, and it doesn’t come without a cost.
With your mailing list, you can segment your audience and send them specially crafted emails based on what message you want to relay. For instance, you can separate your list based on your customer’s location. This way, you can tweak each email and notify each customer where they can buy your book, based on where they are located.
You can also segment your readers based on their behaviour when interacting with your email. So the readers who are constantly opening our emails and clicking your links could receive different ones from those who are less active or interested in your content. This is an invaluable tool that most other platforms cannot compete with.
How Do I Grow My Mailing List?
As an author, there are several ways to start and grow your mailing list. Fortunately, these methods include the help of other online platforms. However, there are a few other simple methods to get them to sign up. Here are a few great examples:
Add Sign Up Options at the Back
Adding a link to the back of your e-book is an effective way of getting your ideal target market to sign up to your mailing list. The technology that allows you to add links to your book is an indispensable tool that should be utilized. Your link can take them to the signup form, and you’ve got access straight to your reader’s inbox.
Add Sign Up Options on Your Website
If you have a website, it is crucial that you add a mailing list signup form. If readers enjoy your books and are looking for more ways to connect with you, ensure they can do that by signing up on your website. There are a few places on your website to strategically place your signup form. You can either have a popup that appears on your home screen or ensure a signup bar at the end of each of your website pages. It’s about making it simple to subscribe to your list.
Talk About It on Your Social Media
Remind your social media followers that they can sign up for your newsletter. If you have a loyal following, it should be easy to get them to subscribe to your newsletter. They just need to be made aware of your newsletter and be reminded to get involved.
Give Them Something in Return
Whether you add a signup form to your book, website, or social media, there is something you cannot ignore: The importance of incentives.
Just about any business that you could possibly think of currently has an email marketing campaign running. And customers are less inclined to sign up to mailing lists without getting something in return. In a world where email spamming is ever-growing, individuals are more cautious of what gets delivered to their inbox.
So when you ask readers to sign up to your list, offer them something in return. This method is considerably more effective than simply telling them to “Sign up to our mailing list.” In fact, according to Sumo (a platform that helps automate site growth), the average email opt-in rate is a mere 1.95%.
You can decide what your incentive is, based on your specific audience. Some incentive ideas include:
● 10% off for first-time subscribers
● Entry to an online contest
● A free mini e-book
● Exclusive content (which they will only receive via email)
When it comes to learning on existing platforms, there are a few great resources for authors. Here are four of our recommended platforms and how you can use them to your benefit:
Prolific Works
Prolific Works allows e-book authors to build their brands, connect with readers, and deliver everything efficiently. Their plan also ensures that all customer support is taken care of, relieving that responsibility from your hands. Their features also direct readers to your mailing list via their recommendation list, newsletter features, and their social media platforms.
Book Funnel
Book Funnel offers authors the opportunity to successfully market their e-books, connect with readers and build their mailing list. Their mailing list features ensure that readers provide their email addresses before downloading your book from their website. Their direct integration system means that the new emails will automatically be added to your mailing list. They have many other features that help new authors, including creating landing pages, author swaps and audio delivery.
Story Origin
Story Origin allows authors to come together as a community, find reviewers, build their mailing lists, and increase sales. The platform enables you to swap newsletters, do group promotions and integrate with other marketing platforms.
Book Sweeps
Book Sweeps provides an opportunity for readers to enter competitions and win a number of prizes, including e-books, signed books, audiobooks, e-readers, and gift cards. This is a great place to add your book as a prize since readers are required to enter their email addresses to win. Book Sweeps uses its platform to help authors grow their mailing lists with this innovative competition method.
Nurturing Your List
Getting readers to subscribe to your list is only the first step. If you don’t pay enough attention to the content you add to these emails, you can quickly repulse your readers and encounter several unsubscribes.
So it is crucial that you not only grow your mailing list but nurture it long term. Here’s what to do and not to do:
Don’t Try to Sell Every Time
The content that you send via your emails should not all be sales-centred. If all of your emails are focused on trying to sell your book, you will lose subscribers by the dozens. The key here is to give readers a reason to open and read your emails. As an author, use this opportunity to discuss relevant book news, share interesting information, or even boost other books and authors. Once readers start to enjoy your emails and trust the content you offer, you have a better chance of closing a sale. The rule of thumb is that 80% of your content should be educational or entertaining, while only 20% should be sales-orientated.
Don’t Spam Your Readers
If you have access to your readers’ direct inbox, it is essential not to take advantage of this by sending emails too frequently. If your readers feel that they are being spammed by too much information, you will start to lose subscribers, which will set you back tremendously. An online platform that provides email automation, known as Keap, recommends sending out your first few emails once a month and then slowly increasing the number to two or three times a month. It’s the best way to gradually introduce yourself to the reader without coming on too strong.
Make a Good First Impression
One of the best tactics in your campaign is to send a welcome email to new members. This gives you the chance to introduce yourself and let them know what they can look forward to. Be sure you keep this short and sweet, though. Offer a quick thanks, let them know who you are, what your emails will include, and add links to your social media platforms. From here, building lasting relationships with your subscribers should be a lot easier.
A Last Thought
There is a lot to consider when building and nurturing your mailing list. The most important thing you can do is put yourself in your readers’ shoes. Think about what you would want as a reader, what would repel you, how often you would like to receive emails and what you expect from valuable content. If you keep yourself in mind and how you feel about certain information, you have a far better chance of getting readers to sign up and keep them captivated and subscribed.
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